Twelve people are confirmed dead after a passenger boat capsized while transiting Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the weekend.
Reports stated the incident occurred between late Saturday evening and early Sunday morning (local time). The unnamed vessel had earlier departed South Kivu province's capital of Bukavu with around 80 people on board.
Rescuers have so far recovered the bodies of 12 deceased individuals while only five survivors have been confirmed. An unknown number of passengers are still missing.
Local authorities said that search and rescue/recovery operations will continue while an investigation will seek to determine the probable cause of the tragedy.
The capsizing this past weekend is the second recorded fatal passenger vessel incident to occur on Lake Kivu since the beginning of the year.
On April 7, a boat with over 40 people on board capsized while transiting the portion of the lake within Kalehe Territory. Only 23 of the boat's occupants were rescued while at least 21 have not been found to this day.
DR Congo has often been criticised for its poor passenger vessel safety record.
"As usual, the DRC was the worst performer [in terms of passenger vessel safety in 2025] even though it did improve from 950 known fatalities from 11 accidents in 2024 to 807 fatalities from six accidents last year," Dr Neil Baird, passenger vessel safety advocate and Baird Maritime co-founder, wrote earlier this year.
Dr Baird had also noted that data on passenger vessel incidents in DR Congo are, "notoriously unreliable."
Baird Maritime tracks global passenger vessel accidents in its comprehensive database, which can be accessed here.